Mix You Up Some Magic
by Nagia
Summary: Tenten, Ino, and the life of a ninja. A collection of musings on life, love, shopping, scented candles, and grief. [1sentence challenge]
1. Non Chronological

**Mix You Up Some Magic**

* * *

And even though that mirror paints a picture much too clear  
She'll mix you up some magic and she'll dye away the years

—Matraca Berg, "Alice in the Looking Glass"

* * *

01 - Ring

It's kind of funny: the first thing Ino noticed about Tenten was that she didn't wear rings.

#02 - Hero

Considering everything else she's come to share with his daughter, Yamanaka Inoichi finds it a surprise that Tenten idolizes Tsunade (Ino does not seem to idolize anybody, though she is constantly comparing herself to the too-thin women who grace the covers of magazines; he is more than happy that Tenten is breaking her of this).

#03 - Memory

Her entire body burned, but in her mind, she was in Ino's tiny apartment again, rubbing mint lotion on her calves and laughing as Ino tried to explain their relationship to her team-mates.

#04 - Box

There is a little box in Yamanaka Ino's room that she does not talk about or open (it was a gift, or so she says, from the love of her life— who was a woman), and she has long forbidden her children and grandchildren from so much as touching it (it is not _for_ them, this is not the future that should have happened).

#05 - Run

"I'm going for a run," Tenten's voice called, "are you sure you won't join me?"

#06 - Hurricane

Ino's smile was like a hurricane, really, and that was part of what Tenten liked about her— that indomitable will, that cheerful penchant for the destruction of any obstacle.

#07 - Wings

Tenten was so high up that Ino almost wondered if she'd sprouted wings, and thought, not for the first time that day, that maybe training was something they shouldn't do together.

#08 - Cold

Tenten knew how much Ino hated snow and figured she'd hate it double, since she'd forgotten gloves—she ignored this, though, instead barely repressing a smile as she rubbed Ino's hands with her own.

#09 - Red

The world seems swamped in a bloody haze, but Tenten is thinking of a blue without end (it is neither sky nor ocean).

#10 - Drink

Yamanaka Inoichi is proud that he managed not to choke on his wine when his daughter called him to ask, "Daddy, would you mind if I brought my girlfriend to dinner?"

#11 - Midnight

It's long after midnight when Ino hears the tap on her window and she heaves a sigh of relief, automatically sliding the window open so a bloody Tenten can crawl inside.

#12 - Temptation

Tenten bit her lip and looked away from Ino's voluptuous curves: they were just friends, and there was no way Ino was into women anyway.

#13 - View

"What a view," says Tenten, a bit breathless, and Ino thinks she is talking about the view out her window, not the view of the woman standing in front of it.

#14 - Music

Tenten never thought she'd be so happy to hear that voice, and, granted, the repetition of a child's nursery rhyme wasn't exactly what she'd wanted to hear, but at least Ino was capable of speech.

#15 - Silk

Ino's skin is smooth and soft and perfect, Tenten thinks, and she is happy enough that her scratchy cotton sheets are as comfortable as silk.

#16 - Cover

Ino was a blanket hog; Tenten only pretended to mind.

#17 - Promise

"Promise me," Tenten murmured as she pushed Ino back onto the couch, kissing everywhere she could touch, "promise me you won't wait up for me anymore."

#18 - Dream

Ino sighed and shifted her weight as Tenten reached out for her in the middle of the night (when the morning came, she did not ask Tenten about her dreams).

#19 - Candle

If you asked Tenten what reminded her of Ino, her automatic answers would be shoe shopping and mint lotion, but the reminders don't stop there: bubble baths, lavender-scented candles, glossy magazines… plums… the colour purple… her ANBU mask… (they both say they've moved on, but more and more it seems that the smallest things set her off).

#20 - Talent

Ino has a sort of sense for good deals when it comes to shoes and clothing; Tenten can only watch, amused, as her girlfriend hunts down entire outfits through four different stores, never once straying from her impromptu mission, with more precision than a bloodhound.

#21 - Silence

Having spent so long training and working and playing with Hyuuga Neji, who almost never said a word, Tenten was grateful for Ino's incessant chatter—finally, finally, there was a voice to silence the doubts in her mind.

#22 - Journey

They do not talk about the time Ino took an outland mission and left her window unlocked, with no hint as to her whereabouts—and they especially do not talk about the fact that Tenten literally tracked Ino down and tried to drag her home.

#23 - Fire

Ino's chakra type is fire; this tends to get her into trouble with Tenten, who laughs and says fire-types are all the same (Ino retorts that they are NOT all the same, and she'll prove it in the futon).

#24 - Strength

Something Tenten taught Ino (surprisingly enough, NOT the other way around): the tarot cards 'strength' and 'lust' both carry the same meaning.

#25 - Mask

Ino hated Shikamaru's ANBU mask with a fervour, but she hates Tenten's mask with all her heart and soul, because it is Tenten's mask that so often winds up in her bathroom sink, and Tenten sleeps naked beside her after each mission.

#26 - Ice

"I'm sorry to say this, you know you were on her contact list," says the bloody ANBU captain she doesn't recognise, and Ino feels a shiver run down her spine and a sudden sensation of coldness in her stomach, as if she, too, is dead.

#27 - Fall

There is a tanto in her right lung and her blood is warm and wet in her hands and she is drowning, yes, drowning, slipping and sinking into a red-white ocean, but the sky above her is blue on endless blue and she smiles as she slips under.

#28 - Forgotten

Tenten blinks at the small, elegant arrangement of flowers on the table (the card next to the arrangement of flowers, of course, explains it all: "Happy Six-Month Anniversary", and Tenten drops the carton of milk because god _damn_ it!).

#29 - Dance

Night clubs were usually torture, but now she had a partner, and said partner was good-looking, funny, well-adjusted, and had a well-developed sense of rhythm (unlike Shikamaru, who NEVER indulged her in this, ever).

#30 - Body

It was the first night, long before stopping by her place became a post-mission routine, that Ino first realised just how well-built Tenten's long, lean form was.

#31 - Sacred

Neji has learned not to say Ino's name with distaste (viciously, he wonders if Tenten will still feel this way when Ino goes back to her Shikamaru, her Chouji, her Sasuke, and he wonders when Tenten's time will be his again).

#32 - Farewells

At first, nights were their only times, and they didn't say goodbye: Tenten was gone almost in a puff of smoke by morning, no matter how tightly she'd clung to Ino the night before.

#33 - World

Tenten gently leaned down to kiss her, hands tangling in blonde hair, nothing but open sky reflected in those blue, blue eyes.

#34 - Formal

"I would like to ask permission—your permission—" and here the brunette had to pause a bit, though her voice had sounded perfectly calm, "—to date your daughter."

#35 - Fever

"Nuh-not—not going to die on you, sir, I have—have to get back to—have to get back to—" she is trying to say Konoha, but she is thinking of blonde hair, blue eyes, an obnoxious tendency to push people around, and her ANBU captain shoots her a puzzled look when she finishes the sentence with, "Ino."

#36 - Laugh

Tenten is the only lover Ino has ever had who could possibly laugh about rolling off the western-style bed in her ANBU-owned apartment and landing on the floor with a thump (Tenten actually DID laugh, and laughed even harder when her captain started hammering on the door, demanding that Tenten provide a status report or some sort of explanation for the disturbance).

#37 - Lies

Ino still had the note on her counter that read, "S-Rank mission but looks easy so back in three days." She'd never expected to keep something that hurt so much.

#38 - Forever

Tenten's skin was damp with sweat, and they'd opened the window because the room was so damn hot, but Ino didn't mind when the other woman's hand entwined itself in hers (they fell asleep that way, sprawled out on a tiny futon, hands clasped and hair entangled).

#39 - Overwhelmed

"Come on, just try them on," Ino said with a smile, although the smile was thinner than it had been the first four times she'd said it, so Tenten swallowed her pride and tried on the goddamn heels.

#40 - Whisper

The cotton towel made soft sounds as it fell away, and Ino decided she'd ignore the splotches of blood that now stained it in favour of pulling her obviously-fresh-from-a-mission-and-in-dire-need-of-sanity girlfriend in for a kiss.

#41 - Wait

On the morning of their first anniversary, Ino woke with her wrist tied to the bedside table and a note on her face (it said, "Just sit here and let me bring you breakfast for once, Stick-Girl.")

#42 - Talk

For the first time since the establishment of the post-mission routine, Tenten actually speaks: she rolls her head onto Ino's stomach and says, "Thank you." It's a start.

#43 - Search

"Uh, Dad, I'm kind of calling for Tenten—I think we left some of her clothes in my old room."

#44 - Hope

Tenten held Ino and said nothing as she sobbed; once Ino had quieted, she gently leaned her back and kissed every inch of her.

#45 - Eclipse

One of the things Ino has noticed about Team Gai—aside from the hair, the strength, the general aura of crazy— is that Neji and Lee are so loud, so influential, so needy, that people tend to forget all about the kunoichi of that team.

#46 - Gravity

Tenten has witnessed a lot of "pregnant pauses" in her life—those moments where nobody says anything and the very world seems to hold its breath to see what's going to happen next—but never has any silence felt so heavy, so _gravid_, as when she informs Neji and Lee, "I'm not going to make night spar this week; I'm taking my girlfriend out to dinner."

#47 - Highway

Ino's definition of moral high road: when Tenten actually CONFESSES to throwing out all the magazines in the house, as opposed to just tossing them out and conveniently blaming it on "spring cleaning urges".

#48 - Unknown

Ino almost shuddered at the thought of helping Tenten update her wardrobe; god only knew WHAT the hell Tenten kept in that closet of hers (later, they will look back on this day and laugh, and whether or not this day should be their anniversary will be a point of affectionate contention, and they'll always agree to disagree and go shoe shopping to celebrate).

#49 - Lock

It is terrifying, sometimes, being in love with Yamanaka Ino (it's terrifying being in love at all because love is such a fragile place to be, such a precarious position by its very nature), and Tenten keeps expecting to feel jailed (oddly enough, she never does).

#50 - Breathe

Tenten collapsed back onto the bed, giving a soft, pleased sigh as Ino leaned against her... and she realised she had finally found a little peace with herself and the world; she could listen to Ino's breathing forever.


	2. Chronological

**Mix You Up Some Magic**

* * *

And even though that mirror paints a picture much too clear  
She'll mix you up some magic and she'll dye away the years 

—Matraca Berg, "Alice in the Looking Glass"

* * *

#01 - Ring 

It's kind of funny: the first thing Ino noticed about Tenten was that she didn't wear rings.

#45 - Eclipse

One of the things Ino has noticed about Team Gai—aside from the hair, the strength, the general aura of crazy—is that Neji and Lee are so loud, so influential, so needy, that people tend to forget all about the kunoichi of that team.

#48 - Unknown

Ino almost shuddered at the thought of helping Tenten update her wardrobe; god only knew WHAT the hell Tenten kept in that closet of hers (later, they will look back on this day and laugh, and whether or not this day should be their anniversary will be a point of affectionate contention, and they'll always agree to disagree and go shoe shopping to celebrate).

#39 - Overwhelmed

"Come on, just try them on," Ino said with a smile, although the smile was thinner than it had been the first four times she'd said it, so Tenten swallowed her pride and tried on the goddamn heels.

#12 - Temptation

Tenten bit her lip and looked away from Ino's voluptuous curves: they were just friends, and there was no way Ino was into women anyway.

#13 - View

"There's a sight for sore eyes," says Tenten, a bit breathless, and Ino thinks she is talking about the view out her window, not the view of the woman standing in front of it.

#30 - Body

It was the first night, long before stopping by her place became a post-mission routine, that Ino first realised just how well built Tenten's long, lean form was.

#32 - Farewells

At first, nights were their only times, and they didn't say goodbye: Tenten was gone almost in a puff of smoke by morning, no matter how tightly she'd clung to Ino the night before.

#18 - Dream

Ino sighed and shifted her weight as Tenten reached out for her in the middle of the night (when the morning came, she did not ask Tenten about her dreams).

#42 - Talk

For the first time since the establishment of the post-mission routine, Tenten actually speaks: she rolls her head onto Ino's stomach and says, "Thank you." It's a start.

#10 - Drink

Yamanaka Inoichi is proud that he managed not to choke on his wine when his daughter called him to ask, "Daddy, would you mind if I brought my girlfriend to dinner?"

#43 - Search

"Uh, Dad, I'm kind of calling for Tenten—I think we left some of her clothes in my old room."

#05 - Run

"I'm going for a run," Tenten's voice called, "are you sure you won't join me?"

#07 - Wings

Tenten was so high up that Ino almost wondered if she'd sprouted wings, and thought, not for the first time that day, that maybe training was something they shouldn't do together.

#34 - Formal

"I would like to ask permission—your permission—" and here the brunette had to pause a bit, though her voice had sounded perfectly calm, "—to date your daughter."

#35 - Fever

"Nuh-not—not going to die on you, sir, I have—have to get back to—have to get back to—" she is trying to say Konoha, but she is thinking of blonde hair, blue eyes, an obnoxious tendency to push people around, and her ANBU captain shoots her a puzzled look when she finishes the sentence with, "Ino."

#25 - Mask

Ino hated Shikamaru's ANBU mask with a fervour, but she hates Tenten's mask with all her heart and soul, because it is Tenten's mask that so often winds up in her bathroom sink, and Tenten sleeps naked beside her after each mission.

#15 - Silk

Ino's skin is smooth and soft and perfect, Tenten thinks, and she is happy enough that her scratchy cotton sheets are as comfortable as silk.

#36 - Laugh

Tenten is the only lover Ino has ever had who could possibly laugh about rolling off the western-style bed in her ANBU-owned apartment and landing on the floor with a thump (Tenten actually DID laugh, and laughed even harder when her captain started hammering on the door, demanding that Tenten provide a status report or some sort of explanation for the disturbance).

#17 - Promise

"Promise me," Tenten murmured as she pushed Ino back onto the couch, kissing everywhere she could touch, "promise me you won't wait up for me anymore."

#11 - Midnight

It's long after midnight when Ino hears the tap on her window and she heaves a sigh of relief, automatically sliding the window open so a bloody Tenten can crawl inside.

#40 - Whisper

The cotton towel made soft sounds as it fell away, and Ino decided she'd ignore the splotches of blood that now stained it in favour of pulling her obviously-fresh-from-a-mission-and-in-dire-need-of-sanity girlfriend in for a kiss.

#16 - Cover

Ino was a blanket hog; Tenten only pretended to mind.

#28 - Forgotten

Tenten blinks at the small, elegant arrangement of flowers on the table (the card next to the arrangement of flowers, of course, explains it all: "Happy Six-Month Anniversary", and Tenten drops the carton of milk because god _damn_ it!).

#29 - Dance

Night clubs were usually torture, but now she had a partner, and said partner was good-looking, funny, well-adjusted, and had a well-developed sense of rhythm (unlike Shikamaru, who NEVER indulged her in this, ever).

#33 - World

Tenten gently leaned down to kiss her, hands tangling in blonde hair, nothing but open sky reflected in those blue, blue eyes.

#46 - Gravity

Tenten has witnessed a lot of "pregnant pauses" in her life—those moments where nobody says anything and the very world seems to hold its breath to see what's going to happen next—but never has any silence felt so heavy, so _gravid_, as when she informs Neji and Lee, "I'm not going to make night spar this week; I'm taking my girlfriend out to dinner."

#31 - Sacred

Neji has learned not to say Ino's name with distaste (viciously, he wonders if Tenten will still feel this way when Ino goes back to her Shikamaru, her Chouji, her Sasuke, and he wonders when Tenten's time will be his again).

#22 - Journey

They do not talk about the time Ino took an outland mission and left her window unlocked, with no hint as to her whereabouts—and they especially do not talk about the fact that Tenten literally tracked Ino down and tried to drag her home.

#41 - Wait

On the morning of their first anniversary, Ino woke with her wrist tied to the bedside table and a note on her face (it said, "Just sit here and let me bring you breakfast for once, Stick-Girl.")

#08 - Cold

Tenten knew how much Ino hated snow and figured she'd hate it double, since she'd forgotten gloves—she ignored this, though, instead barely repressing a smile as she rubbed Ino's hands with her own.

#20 - Talent

Ino has a sort of sense for good deals when it comes to shoes and clothing; Tenten can only watch, amused, as her girlfriend hunts down entire outfits through four different stores, never once straying from her impromptu mission, with more precision than a bloodhound.

#23 - Fire

Ino's chakra type is fire; this tends to get her into trouble with Tenten, who laughs and says fire-types are all the same (Ino retorts that they are NOT all the same, and she'll prove it in the futon).

#24 - Strength

Something Tenten taught Ino (surprisingly enough, NOT the other way around): the tarot cards 'strength' and 'lust' both carry the same meaning.

#38 - Forever

Tenten's skin was damp with sweat, and they'd opened the window because the room was so damn hot, but Ino didn't mind when the other woman's hand entwined itself in hers (they fell asleep that way, sprawled out on a tiny futon, hands clasped and hair entangled).

#02 - Hero

Considering everything else she's come to share with his daughter, Yamanaka Inoichi finds it a surprise that Tenten idolizes Tsunade (Ino does not seem to idolize anybody, though she is constantly comparing herself to the too-thin women who grace the covers of magazines; he is more than happy that Tenten is breaking her of this).

#47 - Highway

Ino's definition of moral high road: when Tenten actually CONFESSES to throwing out all the magazines in the house, as opposed to just tossing them out and conveniently blaming it on "spring cleaning urges."

#49 - Lock

It is terrifying, sometimes, being in love with Yamanaka Ino (it's terrifying being in love at all because love is such a fragile place to be, such a precarious position by its very nature), and Tenten keeps expecting to feel jailed (oddly enough, she never does).

#50 - Breathe

Tenten collapsed back onto the bed, giving a soft, pleased sigh as Ino leaned against her... and she realised she had finally found a little peace with herself and the world; she could listen to Ino's breathing forever.

* * *

&&& ALTERNATE FUTURE NUMBER ONE:

* * *

#37 - Lies 

Ino still had the note on her counter that read, "S-Rank mission but looks easy so back in three days." She'd never expected to keep something that hurt so much.

#03 - Memory

Her entire body burned, but in her mind, she was in Ino's tiny apartment again, rubbing mint lotion on her calves and laughing as Ino tried to explain their relationship to her team-mates.

#09 - Red

The world seems swamped in a bloody haze, but Tenten is thinking of a blue without end (it is neither sky nor ocean).

#27 - Fall

There is a tanto in her right lung and her blood is warm and wet in her hands and she is drowning, yes, drowning, slipping and sinking into a red-white ocean, but the sky above her is blue on endless blue and she smiles as she slips under.

#26 - Ice

"I'm sorry to say this, you know you were on her contact list," says the bloody ANBU captain she doesn't recognise, and Ino feels a shiver run down her spine and a sudden sensation of coldness in her stomach, as if she, too, is dead.

#04 - Box

There is a little box in Yamanaka Ino's room that she does not talk about or open (it was a gift, or so she says, from the love of her life—who was a woman), and she has long forbidden her children and grandchildren from so much as touching it (it is not _for_ them, this is not the future that should have happened).

* * *

&&& ALTERNATE FUTURE NUMBER TWO:

* * *

#21 - Silence 

Having spent so long training and working and playing with Hyuuga Neji, who almost never said a word, Tenten was grateful for Ino's incessant chatter—finally, finally, there was a voice to silence the doubts in her mind.

#06 - Hurricane

Ino's smile was like a hurricane, really, and that was part of what Tenten liked about her—that indomitable will, that cheerful penchant for the destruction of any obstacle.

#22 - Journey

They do not talk about the time Ino took an outland mission and left her window unlocked, with no hint as to her whereabouts—and they especially do not talk about the fact that Tenten literally tracked Ino down and tried to drag her home.

#14 - Music

Tenten never thought she'd be so happy to hear that voice, and, granted, the repetition of a child's nursery rhyme wasn't exactly what she'd wanted to hear, but at least Ino was capable of speech.

#44 - Hope

Tenten held Ino and said nothing as she sobbed; once Ino had quieted, she gently leaned her back and kissed every inch of her.

#19 - Candle

If you asked Tenten what reminded her of Ino, her automatic answers would be shoe shopping and mint lotion, but the reminders don't stop there: bubble baths, lavender-scented candles, glossy magazines… plums… the colour purple… her ANBU mask… (they both say they've moved on, but more and more it seems that the smallest things set her off).


End file.
